How To Survive Night Shift Nursing: Tips For LPNs

Working in night shifts is an integral and inevitable part of the nursing profession. It can be a bit challenging if not dealt properly. It requires a good balance of mental and physical efforts to carry on a night shift with ease.

Various nursing colleges and practical nurse school do teach their students as to how to handle a night shift but to implement it practically can be a bit taxing.

It is quite tough to manage a night shift in nursing if you are not habitual to it. Make use of the following tips and lead your job easily:-

Understand Your Sleep Pattern
The first and foremost thing is to understand your sleep pattern and sleep schedule. Some individuals require 7-8 hours of sleep while some require 9-10. Some might even need a little less too. Figure out how much sleep do you need in a day, stipulate a sleep-time schedule for yourself, and make sure to follow that. It might take some time but you will become habitual of the schedule soon.

Create A Comfortable Sleeping Area
If you work in a night shift, daytime will be the only time when you will be able to sleep. For attaining a peaceful sleep in the daylight, you must make sure to create a comfortable sleeping area for yourself with a soft bed, light-preventing curtains, and a soft eye mask. This will help your brain convince that its a night-time and it needs to rest. Since our mind and body determines the sleep time via light, this tip can help you tackle this phenomenon.

Hydrate Prominently
Many nurses tend to avoid this essential thing. Make sure to hydrate and drink sufficient water as much as possible. It will help you stay awake during the night time, will keep you fresh, and will provide you the necessary energy to survive the night-shifts.

Talk To Your Coworkers & Colleagues
For surviving the night shift, this is a great tip. Talk to your coworkers and begin to maintain a healthy workplace relationship with them. Conversing with your colleagues at work can help you stay awake, dodge sleep and will even assist you in focusing on your work. Plus, this will moreover help you build a peaceful environment at the workplace.

Ensure A Healthy Diet
Eating healthy and maintaining a balanced diet is advised to all. But for nurses working in night shifts, this is even more important. For enduring the night shift, and keeping up the energy levels high, having a stable diet can be of great help. So do eat well, this will help you survive the night-shift schedules efficiently.

Consume Caffeine Carefully
Generally, night-shift workers often consume high levels of caffeine for staying awake during night shifts. One must consume caffeine within a stipulated limit only and must avoid exceeding its consumption.

Adopt these tips while working in the night shifts and you will be able to deal with it with ease.

Also, if you want to Become A Licensed Practical Nurse and aim to enroll yourself in accredited LPN programs provided by top licensed practical nursing schools, you must consider joining Verve College.

Our LPN Programs can help you build and lead a successful career in nursing. Our Illinois Nclex Pass Rates throughout the numerous years has been remarkable, so do enroll with us for commencing a noble career.